Breakaway 2/21 Long Review with Pics

Well, the pics will follow as I sort through them, so hang in there. :D And this is getting very long so I'll break up the text into multiple posts.

This was our first NCL cruise and only 2nd ever cruise. We first sailed out of Baltimore on Carnival about 1.5 years ago. Since we just have 2 under out belt, I'll likely compare/contrast the two cruises/lines based on our specific experiences. Above all though, we all had a great time!

My husband and I sailed with our two sons (nearly 12 and 3.5 years old) in an angled balcony room (8738), which for the life of me I kept spacing on the room number while on board even though we were booked for over a year and I was proud to have snagged this room and could rattle off the room info to anyone, anytime--except for when asked on board.

We took the train from central NY the day before and stayed at Novotel in NYC. Beautiful hotel and great location. We loved the train too. We did not want to drive to NYC and the other option was a bus from near Albany which still would have required a couple of hours driving each way. The train was 15 minutes early to NY and perfectly on time coming back. We had no problems getting 4 seats together and loved that there were outlets on the train and wifi. The Amtrak employees were very friendly too. My kids thought the train ride was way cool and it was nice that they could move around vs us all being belted into a car for those 5 hours.

This was our first large ship. Personally, I think I enjoy smaller ships. It did have a great outdoor space for walking. It is decorated beautifully and tastefully. Some things I did not care for were that the hallways were soooo narrow. On the Carnival Pride we walked laps with our then 2 year old and could easily pass by the steward's carts with our Maclaren umbrella stroller. On the Breakaway you had to curve into the door vestibules and you could maybe sneak by if just right, but often had to lift half the wheels.

On our last cruise we had a premium balcony room that was huge by comparison to the balcony room on the Breakaway. It was very tight for 4 people and we've decided that if/when we cruise again we will have to do 2 rooms most likely. The giant balcony was great, though because we sailed in February out of NY, we didn't get a ton of use out of it.

Our steward was very friendly and we saw him in the halls a lot, but I kind of felt the service was meh. We only got towel animals about every other day. I think we had a total of 3. Many days he didn't stow the upper bed and service the room until just before lunch and in the evenings it was also later, like 7-8ish. On our previous cruise the steward was like a ninja and would be in and our while we had breakfast and then again when we had dinner. On the last day this past week, it was after 8 and he still hadn't been by and we wanted to get our youngest settled down early for the trip home the next day so we told him we were all set and just had the little one sleep with us and our older son took the sofa bed. Oh, we waited to get on board to minimize waiting at the port so rooms were supposed to be ready when we boarded. When we got to our room we found a bag with some clothes and shoes in one of the cabinets and leftover drinks in the mini fridge. Ick.

NCL did the muster drill so much better than Carnival did. I def. prefer sitting in a theater for 30 minutes to standing crammed back to front like a marching band on deck for an hour! A++++ for this.

The rooms were very pretty and much more nicely decorated than the more garish Carnival Pride. While the closet was hard to get to with the upper bunk down, there was plenty of storage for 4 with room to spare. The duvet seemed pretty thin, or maybe because it's still winter I'm used to my heavy blankets and bedding from home at this time of year. The beds and pillows weren't particularly comfy, but we are used to our memory foam mattress and I also use latex pillows and home. Just a personal preference thing. I also like the shower door vs the curtain with Carnival. I didn't have to worry about accidently soaking my clean clothes while I showered!

I pre purchased the unlimited internet plan. It worked fairly well. It was sometimes difficult to get logged in as it would just loop around errors, but I could easily text/FB messenger, email, send pics, surf the web. Not as fast as home, but it did ok. Videos didn't like to load most of the time. I took a screen shot of my useage and I used over 2000 MB.

We had the UBP and the kids had the soda package, though the little guy never used his, obviously. No problems getting drinks, but we never really hung out near the busier pool bars. I mostly drank strawberry daiquiris and only one was garnished with fruit! I actually think it was just the first one that had a strawberry in it. I'm surprised NCL uses the throw away plastic cups too. I thought cruise ships tried to keep the amount of trash/recyclables down.

My older son and husband loved the water slides and ropes course. The little man loved mini golf. My older son LOVED Splash Academy and had a blast. he was devastated when the cruise was over. He said it was so much more fun than last time on the Pride, though I explained to him it also has to do with particular counselors and the number of kids. We sailed before in late September on a small ship, so there were very few kids. We sailed on a low kid week on the BW too, but since the BW is about double the passengers, there were about 20-30 kids who regularly went to his age group in Splash.

My 3 year old went a few times the first few days. They had a super hero day and while he is all about the superheroes (we have a special coat hook bar just for all of his costumes at home...), all he talked about after that day is the bad guy with a mask how knocked down a tower, so I think the villain for that activity was a little too convincing to him. After that he did not want to go back.

We bribed him to go back later in the week because we wanted to take the behind the scenes tour. About 10 minutes into the tour I got a call on the pager they gave me that he had pooped. Figures! He is not potty trained and we stated that when registering. When I got there with a diaper to change him, they said he had taken his diaper off in the bathroom and had been trying to flush his poo from it. I was kind of stunned and in shock, but afterwards wondered why they had let him into the bathroom to begin with. Carnival would change diapers and I knew NCL's policy was that they won't even help with pottying (which is why I didn't push it at home even though he's almost ready--I knew at 3 he couldn't do his underwear and pants by himself). So I don't know why they let a diapered 3 year old to go hang out in the bathroom, but everyone is alive, just a bit embarrassed! He never undresses or takes off his diaper at home. Of course he wouldn't go back to Splash after I re diapered him, so that was the end of Splash and my behind the scenes tour. :( My husband got stuck staying with it (I was the one who had really wanted to do it to begin with!) but the lady did refund my fee on it, which was nice.

Weather: We had beautiful weather in NY for sailaway. It was in the 50's. In February!! It was mid 70's in Florida. The water was very cold, though that didn't stop our kids from splashing their feet in the waves. We stuck to taking the shuttle bus to Cocoa Beach and headed to Walgreens to appease Mr 3 year old who kept insisting the shops on board had a Star Wars X Wing fighter for him to buy. A Nerf gun from Walgreens fixed that situation. :D

We made it to GSC and it was very beautiful there, though I may be in the minority that isn't in love with it. It seemed like a huge party atmosphere there and that's not my thing. It was very warm that day and very sunny. The water was about what we swim in back home. Not nearly as warm as the Bahamas water was when we last went in September (which was perfect for me because I love bath water!). The kids again had a blast swimming. Oh, and the guy who was the "host" in the theater while we waited for the tender was awesome. Hilarious and nice and made the time pass so quickly. I don't remember his name, just that he is from Columbia and has only been speaking English for a year and a half. He was quite handsome too! :D

I'm in the minority here because I enjoy Nassau. Granted this was only the 2nd time here, but both times we had a great time. It was cooler this day which was good because my husband and older son ended up burned the day before and while my pale, redhead skin escaped, the sun the day before gave me a super headache and I shivered all night long anyway. This time we went to Blue Lagoon and I liked it better there than GSC. Lots of space to spread out and my older son loved the inflatables. The staff there was so friendly and nice and they had a conga line going on the ferry back (which my 3 year old slept though). We left early so there was time to walk through Nassau on the way back. I missed riding the jitneys this time (last time we went to Melia) and walking through more of Nassau, but time was limited. My one complaint was that it took forever for the excursion to get underway. We stood around for about an hour before we made our way to the ferry to go there. I think I preferred the way we did it before with figuring out what to do on our own, but would definitely go to Blue Lagoon again.

Aside from the buffet lunch in one of the dining rooms during embarkation, we exclusively ate in the buffet and a couple of things from O'Sheehan's. We never made it to the dining rooms for meals and didn't do any of the upcharge restaurants. One thing I felt kind of put off about on this ship (and maybe all of NCL) is the huge amount of upcharge restaurants. Carnival just had 1. I felt like so much of the ship and venues were "off limits" to us. By off limits, I mean off limits without paying extra. When you put all those restaurants with the spa and Vibe and the Haven area too, it feels like we never saw half the ship. When exploring I was kind of afraid I'd wander into one of these more "exclusive" places by mistake.

The food on the buffet was very good, but we are simple people with simple tastes. I love breakfast, especially the made to order omelets and the little fried hash browns. I thought they'd be tasteless like McDonald's, but they had an awesome onion flavor like hash browns should have. We could always find something we liked. My absolute favorite though were the crepes. OMG!!!! They were awesome and hands down kill Carnival's chocolate melting cake (which I also loved). I wish Nerissa could have come home with me. I missed the great 24 hour pizza station from Carnival and their deli. We were never hungry (I'm still not really hungry yet!), but that pizza or a sandwich made for a great later night snack.

Debarkation was easy for us. We took orange tags because our return train wasn't until 1:20. We had breakfast and hung out at the buffet. They did not start letting self assist off until 9:15 (glad I didn't pick the 10:40 train despite some people saying you could get off super quick and have plenty of time to make it) and called the first group of colors at 10:20, then green and orange at 10:50 and then all the rest at 11:00. I took notes while we waited leisurely. :D Once we were off the line through customs was super fast, though I was surprised we got our bags first. It is reversed in Baltimore. We walked a ways to a quieter part of Manhattan (quieter than the port!) and caught a cab to Penn Station (which is quite ugly for an old train station, IMO!).

All in all, it was a great vacation and my 11 year old is begging for another cruise. We had great weather. Not sure if our next trip will be another cruise or land trip. When we do cruise we want to see new ports so it'll either be Bermuda or we'll have to travel further to get a ship that can go further south.

Great review!

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Thank you sooo much for taking the time to give such an honest review!!! we are on the BA this sunday and its our first time as well...it seems like we have the same tastes as you and your family.

best,

mark

Thank-you for the review.

very nice review.

Keith

great review. It nice to get the perspective of someone who isn't in the haven and didn't pay for the spa or vibe pass.

I do plan on buying the 3-4 night SDP so we can try some of the upgraded restaurants, because I love food lol.

I had thought about the vibe but we'll be with a group of 6-8 so I figure we'll be hanging out, no need to run away and hide in the vibe.

Thanks for the feedback so far! Trying to do this while it's fresh in my memory. here are a few pics from my phone. I haven't imported the ones from my cameras yet and I'll have to have my husband send me the few pics he took on the behind the scenes tour to see if they're of any interest.

Here are a couple pictures of the angled balcony. I know it was hard to find good pictures of it so I tried to get it as best as I could. I might have more from my "real" camera.

And for fun, here are a couple pictures of my little superhero. The first one was how he insisted on walking around Times Square the saturday before the cruise!

And this was right after the apparently traumatizing Splash Academy villian fiasco. He doesn't look traumatized there, but the rest of the week it was all he would talk about and if you asked if he wanted to go back, he'd always say "tomorrow". But "tomorrow" never came!

And now in totally the wrong order, this is right before our ride to NYC from our beautiful, historic train station. I have to say I was disappointed when we arrived in Penn Station as it was ugly as sin! Lots of choices for a bite to eat though.

More pictures to come, I promise!

Thanks for the review!! Sounds like a great time for your family. :)

Looking forward to reading more!

Thanks for taking the time out to share. We were in 8738 back in November and loved the balcony. We had Danny as our steward. Meh is right ;)

Your boys are adorable.

Happy Cruising!

Great stuff. Thanks.

And now in totally the wrong order, this is right before our ride to NYC from our beautiful, historic train station. I have to say I was disappointed when we arrived in Penn Station as it was ugly as sin! Lots of choices for a bite to eat though.

Great review! LOVE your comments on Penn Station, they crack me up! I'm from Long Island so every trip into the city lands us in stinky, dirty, yucky Penn. However, I have heard of plans for a rather expensive renovation.

Thanks for your review! My husband and I will be on the Breakaway for the first time in August going to Bermuda. It's been 3 years since our last cruise so I have lots to catch up on! We've been on Carnival 3x, Disney once and our last was Norwegian Gem. I'm a bit nervous about the "big" ship since I think I like smaller better but I'm hoping it won't matter. This will also be the first time cruising without our two kids:eek:

Thank you sooo much for taking the time to give such an honest review!!! we are on the BA this sunday and its our first time as well...it seems like we have the same tastes as you and your family.

 

best,

mark

we are too!!!! first time on NCL, looking forward to just relaxing :D

Good review. My wife and I sail on the Breakaway on April 3. I think the disembarkation info is going to stress my wife quite a bit. We're scheduled on a 10:05 train out of Penn Station back to Delaware. I convinced her that we should have no problem getting off the ship and to Penn Station in time. She's going to be worried now.

Good review. My wife and I sail on the Breakaway on April 3. I think the disembarkation info is going to stress my wife quite a bit. We're scheduled on a 10:05 train out of Penn Station back to Delaware. I convinced her that we should have no problem getting off the ship and to Penn Station in time. She's going to be worried now.

If possible book a later train & take your time disembarking versus waiting in the walk off line.

OP - great review - so funny to see a different perspective of same cruise!!

Good review. My wife and I sail on the Breakaway on April 3. I think the disembarkation info is going to stress my wife quite a bit. We're scheduled on a 10:05 train out of Penn Station back to Delaware. I convinced her that we should have no problem getting off the ship and to Penn Station in time. She's going to be worried now.

I do recommend a later train unless it's just the 2 of you and you can do the easy walk off and then run to Penn Station fast. We docked on time so I don't know what the hold up was. When booking a train we had a choice of a 10:40 and a 1:20 and I went with the later one. We had 2 kids to wrangle too and the accompanying luggage. It was a madhouse outside of the terminal with everyone leaving and the new passengers arriving too. Cabs were hard to come by, but the private drivers offering a trip to Penn for $40 were plentiful. Ha! As if. It was a little over $10 plus tip from where we grabbed a cab a few blocks up.

We were on this sailing with you. I like reading what others did onboard. We planned to do the slides, ropes course, and mini golf, but never made it. I even had brother bring extra golf balls! Perhaps fourth time will be a charm!

We too enjoyed the weather as it can be chilly this time of year sailing out of NYC. We too like Nassau...we went to Atlantis and then walked around downtown to the straw market. We ate at a nearby restaurant on the waterfront and had conch fritters and lobster roll. We thought about walking to nearby Junkanoo (sp?) beach, but it was chilly and windy towards the day's end.

There were a lot of passengers walking around red skinned from GReat Stirrup Cay the day prior! I was glad we made it to the private island. Norwegian sure has developed it over the years. I remember when it was just one beach and the little Norway tender drove right up on the sand to drop everyone off.

I also agree to book a later train departure....

coka

Thank you for your review.I'm on Breakaway next Jan never sailed out of New York before recently took my first NCL cruise this Jan on the Escape and loved every minute of it that we booked the Breakaway while on board.My parents got the ultimate beverage package deal and the 6 nights dining package deal included in the cruise.As I booked a studio I could choose one option so I choose the beverage package.Is the Novotel hotel close to the cruise terminal?Thank you.

Thanks for sharing your review with us. Much appreciated as we await sailing the Breakaway to Bermuda in August!

Thanks for the report.

We are also sailing 4/3, hoping for good weather. I too get anxious with the flood of people. our bus should arrive at 11, hoping for a good day. ENJOY!

Thanks for the pictures of the angled balcony! We were able to snag one on 14 for our cruise in August. Do all of the angled balconies have loungers?